1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling battery recharging and discharging in a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various functions have been recently added to a portable terminal so as to satisfy various user demands. Particularly, as well as typical functions such as sending mail, accessing the Internet, playing games, etc., a multimedia function for transmitting data and video, which is widely used, has been added to the portable terminal.
There is an advantage when such various functions are added to the portable terminal in that a user can be provided with various kinds of conveniences via the portable terminal. However, there is also a disadvantage in that such additions cause the amount of power in the portable terminal, i.e. the amount of battery consumption, to continuously increase. Therefore, due to the increased amount of battery consumption, the user has to charge the battery of the portable terminal more often than in the past.
In this case, a detachable external battery, which can be attached to and detached from the portable terminal depending on the user's need, may be used for addressing the inconvenience that the user has to frequently charge a battery of the terminal.
Meanwhile, a portable terminal having a detachable external battery first uses power of the embedded battery and then uses power of the external battery in a state that the external battery has been connected therewith. As a result, when the user detaches the external battery from the portable terminal in a state that the user uses almost all the amount of power of the embedded battery, i.e. in a state that the embedded battery is nearly discharged, it is often caused that the user can not use the portable terminal due to shortage of the embedded battery capacity.
Furthermore, in charging batteries, a portable terminal having a detachable external battery simultaneously charges both an embedded battery and an external battery. Therefore, when the user uses the portable terminal after detaching the external battery from the portable terminal while charging the batteries, the charge capacity of the embedded battery may be insufficient.